Mando'a Translator

Su cuy'gar, vod. That's hello in this Mando'a translator, and it really says "so you're still alive," which tells you a lot about Mandalorian small talk. It works both ways, English to Mando'a and back. There's no AI behind it. I matched all 44 phrases and every word to the vocabulary Karen Traviss wrote, and my script stops dead if one isn't on the list. If you came for a Mandalorian translator that won't invent words, this is it.

What Is Mando'a?

It's the spoken language of the Mandalorians in Star Wars. Traviss built most of it for her Republic Commando novels, after the song Vode An in the game started things off. Grammar stays loose on purpose. No cases, no gender, and he, she and they can all be kaysh. Past and future get a small prefix, ru and ven, because a warrior doesn't plan much past Tuesday. The show kept a few words too, so beskar and Mand'alor will sound familiar. Fans have kept it going since she took her word pages down, which is why you'll see plenty of extra words online that she never wrote, and why I left those out.

How Do You Say Hello in Mando'a?

Su cuy'gar. Friends cut it to su'cuy. Here are the lines people ask for most, spelled the way the source spells them. Type any of them in either language.

English	Mando'a	Literal meaning
Hello	Su cuy'gar	So you're still alive
Goodbye	Ret'urcye mhi	Maybe we'll meet again
Thank you	Vor entye	I accept a debt
Please	Gedet'ye	Please
Cheers	K'oyacyi	Stay alive
I love you	Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum	I will know you forever
My brother	Ner vod	Also my sister, my friend
A Mandalorian never forgets	Mando'ad draar digu	Same
Watch my back	Hukaat'kama	Same
Damn it	Haar'chak	Same
Well done	Kandosii	Nice one
He's an idiot	Kaysh mirsh solus	His brain cell is lonely

Notice how many of those are about staying alive. Hello checks you survived, cheers tells you to keep at it, and goodbye only says maybe. Vor entye is my favorite, because you can't just say thanks. You own up to a debt. Say it to a Mandalorian who just pulled you out of a firefight and you've told them, in three syllables, that you know exactly what you owe and you plan to pay it.

Why Are There So Many Mando'a Insults?

Because a masked warrior can't mock your face. An in-universe guide says the language has more insults than most, and nearly all go after cowardice, stupidity, laziness, dull talk or bad hygiene. Di'kut is the one you'll hear first. Shabuir is far worse, so save it. Notice what's missing, though, because almost nothing in the list goes after your mother or your looks, which makes sense for people who hide their faces and adopt kids from anywhere.

How Do You Say This Is the Way in Mando'a?

Nobody knows, and I won't fake it. I couldn't find an official Mando'a line for it, so anything sold as the real thing is a fan guess. Way isn't in the list either. Type it here and it comes back in angle brackets, the same as pizza. That's how you spot a word this tool doesn't have. I'd rather show you the gap than make up a word for your tattoo. If you've already got a fan version on your helmet or your arm, I'm not judging, but I can't tell you it's right and neither can anyone else selling you a tattoo.

Full sentences get looked up word by word. "My brother is a warrior" gives ner vod cuyir verd, and you see each word's meaning under it. Those are dictionary words in order, so treat them as a rough draft. The tense prefixes and plural endings aren't added for you. Going the other way, paste "su cuy'gar, vod" and you get English back. Apostrophes are optional on single words, so hutuun finds hut'uun.

Can This Write the Mandalorian Alphabet?

No. The Mandalorian script has 26 letters and no Unicode block, so a page can't give you text to copy. You'd need a fan font or an image. The letters on Jango Fett's ship screens in Attack of the Clones came from a typeface made for that film, so the shapes are real even if you can't type them here. Mando'a itself comes out here in plain English letters, which is how Traviss wrote it down anyway.

Want more made-up tongues? The Klingon Translator has its own word gloss, and the High Valyrian Translator is built the same no-guessing way. You can browse every other voice on our full translator list. My word list is from Wookieepedia's Mando'a page, which cites Traviss.

Mando'a Questions, Answered

Is Mando'a a real language? Yes and no. Nobody grew up speaking it, but Traviss wrote real grammar and a word list, and fans still use it today.

How do you say I love you in Mando'a? Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum. It means "I will know you forever," and that's as soft as Mandalorians get.

What does vod mean? Brother, sister or comrade. The plural is vode, which is why the song is called Vode An, or Brothers All.

What does beskar mean? Mandalorian iron. Add gam, the word for skin, and beskar'gam is the armor, so a Mandalorian's kit is really "iron skin."

Does Google Translate have Mandalorian? No. It doesn't list Mando'a at all, because it's a fan-kept fictional language, so a small tool like this one is your best bet.

How do you translate Mandalorian to English? Paste the Mando'a line in the box above. It reads known phrases whole, then goes word by word and shows you what each one means.